Petőcz Kálmán (szerk.): National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006-2009 (Somorja, 2009)
Grigorij Mesežnikov: National Populism in Slovakia - Defining the Character of the State and Interpreting Select Historic Events
Grigorij Mesežnikov logical anchor, party leaders did not hesitate to use nationalist arguments. For instance Boris Zala, former party vice-chairman and one of its principal ideologists wrote in 2002 that the third way concept (i.e. the party’s new ideology) according to SMER-SD included a “renewed search for national meaning and historical anchoring of Slovakness”.3 SMER-SD earned parliamentary representation in the 2002 parliamentary elections. Between 2002 and 2006, it behaved as an implacable opposition force that criticized all relevant socio-economic reform measures adopted by the centre-right administration. It promised to carry out fundamental changes once it would seize power. Its communication with voters, sweeping criticism of government’s performance and proposed measures to tackle existing problems all showed clear traces of populism. Messages of nationalistic nature formed an integral part of the party’s mobilization strategies. The party confinned its ‘pro-national’ orientation by cooperating with nationalistic-oriented subjects before presidential and regional elections in 2004. The decision of SMER-SD to form a new administration with the SNS and the LS-HZDS after the 2006 elections was catalyzed primarily by power ambitions. Leaders of SMER-SD tried to justify the decision by the motivation to create favourable conditions for implementation of socio-economic policies based on social-democratic values (e.g. building the welfare state). According to SMER-SD leaders, the Robert Fico administration pursues social-democratic policies while its coalition partners endorse these policies and even adapt their own priorities to them. In fact, two minor ruling parties actively pursue their own ideas in several areas, which in the case of radically nationalist SNS leads to direct attempts to meddle with the established system of minority rights’ implementation, for instance in the field of education and use of native languages. Government participation of the SNS allows its leaders as well as representatives of related opinion streams to take an active part in the public discourse and sway it toward strengthening the concept of ethnic nationalism. This leads to a general change in overall social atmosphere, including the area of interethnic relations. There was one more relevant subject of the populist type on Slovakia’s political scene, namely the Association of Slovak Workers (ZRS) that was part of the ruling coalition between 1994 and 1998. Describing this party as a typical protagonist of national populism would be little far-fetched, mostly because the element of ethnic nationalism was largely absent from its program profile, its voter mobilization strategies and its practical performance. Nevertheless, it was a populist political subject that attracted 44
